That's interesting... Maybe there's a way to make water a gib... Y'know... like a frictionless gib. I've seen plenty of debris fly around in a pretty bouncy fashion, especially the riot shield. Maybe there's a way to cut it down into one pixel, paint it blue and get rid of the friction?

This thread has destroyed my faith in humanity.

Nearly every imaginable way to do water has been tried, and frankly, it would add close to nothing to the game as a mod.

Wow. It took you that long to lose faith? I lost mine a couple years back, bud.

Surely this is a joke right? I mean, out of everything he posts the two things that have been most stressed that aren't going to happen.

If not, Hi! Welcome to datarealms. The land of opportunity.

Water will probably never be implemented anyway but here are my thoughts on the subject:

The best low level solution to stopping water from stacking which I have seen was done in dwarf fortress.
It's based on areas of pressure instead of individual physics particles like concrete.

Instead of water particles stacking up because they can't move down and rather than having to propagate push calculations through the whole body of water, water simply moves directly to their destination in one calculation so you get proper waterfalls and water will flow round U-bends (which they don't in the sand games)

You wouldn't have to calcualte flow every frame seeing as the game isn't a water simulator, no one will pay much attention to exactly what the water is doing so long as it looks good. There is the problem of water in a pool suddenly emptying when a hole appears under it as each area of water moves to its destination when its turn comes up. That said, it's really only a problem in 3D games when large volumes of water suddenly start moving, in a 2D game there's no telling how deep (on the z-axis) a pool of water is so water in CC wont look too odd.

The way dwarf fortress does it may not be the prettiest method but in a 2D game like this I think it's adequate. Special effects like waves and splashes don't need to have a physics calculation or you could simply add a short lived emitter at/around the impact point that emits water particles like blood which then don't turn into terrain.


There's an interview here which roughly explains the theory:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3 ... php?page=9

I wasn't really joking, but whatev. If water can't be made, it can't be made, but it's worth a shot in my eyes, no matter how much others stress it isn't.

Have you ever played Cortex Command? It's not top-down, as you seem to believe.

Let alone that yoiu then bring up DF, which IS top-down, and uses a completely data-driven liquid model. Let alone that DF does use displacement, waves, and splashes.

Use the Phun method of water which uses a bunch of circles that are shaded to look like water. You could make them combine to form bigger circles when stationary and break apart when they move faster. Making the terrain act a similar way might allow terrain gibbing and more efficient physics.

Hey candlejack... Do you think someone could actually implement that into Cortex Command? ... I know I can't... Way too much of a newbie with CC scripting yet.

On the upside... I'm not sure this'll help with the water, but I've noticed that when you spray out a frictionless material... it will still stick to the ground... Maybe it has to do with the concrete, sand etc. that it's touching, and that material's friction is causing it to stick... I've made adjustments to some water testing material I've made that had -1 as it's friction, and it worked somewhat like rubber.

Maybe we could figure out a code for a new material that will negate whatever material's friction in comes in contact with? That way, it will keep on existing as an object or gib, and it'll bounce around (not horribly) somewhat like water particles do.

My idea was to make gibs that stick together and break into smaller gibs extremely easy. Also, they'd have to be bouncy.

Well if you need bouncy gibs, just look at the riot shield.

Yes, I have been playing cortex command and I've done some games programming so I know what I'm taking about. DF is actualy 3D even though it's top down, its water model can be applied to CC if you just calculate the X and Y axis. I didn't mean the whole system should be copied directly, just that there are efficient methods to solve the stacking water problem. You might have got the wrong end of the stick and anyway, it's only a thought.

Sure, the DF model COULD be applied, but on a pixel scale it would be far from ideal.

Then don't do the physis pixel-per-pixel I guess.

Before I sound stupid can't you just make it work the same way air does?

There's isn't any air. There's an air material, but that's only used for explosions and emissions. The pink stuff is all just ab absence of material.